The Technical Factor Behind the World Championship Battle Between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
The battle for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship title has narrowed down to an internal duel within the McLaren team — a showdown between two young and talented drivers wearing the iconic papaya orange colors: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Australian driver, Oscar Piastri, had taken an early lead during the spring phase of the championship, but Lando Norris responded with back-to-back victories in Austria and his home race at Silverstone in the United Kingdom.
Norris’ resurgence is not only due to on-track brilliance. A pivotal factor has been the technical upgrades made to the front suspension of the McLaren MCL39, introduced during the Canadian Grand Prix. This update appears to have addressed several of the limitations that previously hampered Norris’ driving style, particularly in terms of feedback and connection with the car — elements that were altered significantly from last season’s design.
Difficulties at the Start of the Season
During the early rounds of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Oscar Piastri impressed with his composure and ability to extract maximum performance from the technically superior McLaren package. The young Australian consistently capitalized on the car’s strengths and made very few mistakes. Meanwhile, although Lando Norris often demonstrated superior race pace on Sundays, he was frequently compromised by weaker qualifying sessions. These setbacks forced him to start behind his teammate and made it difficult to convert his raw speed into consistent points and podiums.
As early as the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged the differing driving styles of the two drivers. These differences were especially evident in single-lap pace. Stella explained:
“When both drivers are pushing the car to the limit, they have slightly different expectations from the car and how it should behave at the edge.”
With one extra season of experience under his belt, Oscar Piastri significantly improved his performance in 2025, especially during qualifying. Conversely, Lando Norris openly admitted to experiencing a disconnect with the MCL39. He stated:
“There’s something that just isn’t clicking between me and the car. I can’t produce the kind of laps I was delivering last season.”
Norris repeatedly pointed to an issue with the car’s front end:
“The corners where I struggle the most are those where I lack the front grip I need.”
The root of the problem lies in a car that makes it more difficult for the driver to feel the forces acting on the front wheels. This hampers the ability to judge the limit of grip — a crucial skill, particularly in qualifying, where drivers must push to the maximum on a constantly evolving track surface. The issue is less pronounced in race conditions, where drivers maintain a slight margin and benefit from consistent lap sequences that help track the grip evolution more effectively.
What Changed in the MCL39
Why did Lando Norris struggle more than Oscar Piastri, and what changed so dramatically from one season to the next? Despite superficial similarities, the 2025 McLaren MCL39 is a significantly different machine from the car that helped McLaren win the Constructors’ Championship the previous year. One of the most substantial changes lies in the design of the front suspension.
The configuration of the suspension arms was aggressively altered for aerodynamic gains. The steering rack and tie rod were repositioned ahead of the final suspension element, affecting the steering kinematics. As a result, the way forces are transmitted from the front wheels to the steering wheel changed dramatically. This transformation had a direct impact on Norris, whose driving style relies heavily on steering feel.
Norris explained the issue in detail, highlighting the unique interplay between driver and machine in Formula 1:
“I’m a driver who mostly relies on my hands to feel the car — as most people do. Of course, when you’re in the car, you rely on multiple senses […]. But for me, feeling the limit of grip primarily happens through the steering wheel. It’s the most sensitive part for me.”
The contrast in driving styles between the two McLaren drivers also plays a role. Oscar Piastri tends to sacrifice entry speed for better exits, while Norris prefers a rounded, U-shaped trajectory through corners. He combines steering input and braking more aggressively, making him more sensitive to changes in front-end behavior.
The Suspension Upgrade Introduced in Canada
In response to these challenges, the McLaren technical department at Woking implemented a key update to the front suspension starting from the Canadian Grand Prix. This involved modifying the internal linkages and slightly repositioning the upper suspension arms’ mounting points at the wheel hub.
Andrea Stella explained the goal of the upgrade:
“We wanted to provide the drivers with better feedback from the front tires under braking, especially when they’re close to locking up. Usually, drivers estimate this using various inputs — including the steering wheel — and we aimed to enhance the sensation transmitted from the front suspension to the wheel.”
The changes impacted technical parameters such as kingpin and caster angles, which determine the tilt of the steering axis relative to the ground. By adjusting these, McLaren aimed to increase the strength of the forces transmitted between the steering wheel and the tires. This would allow the driver to better sense the front grip level, especially under load. The upgrade was a comprehensive effort, involving the aerodynamics, mechanical, and vehicle dynamics departments.
Both McLaren drivers were offered the updated suspension, but only Lando Norris opted to use it.
In Canada, Norris made a pair of errors during qualifying. However, just two weeks later, he delivered his best performance of the season in Austria. While it is true that Norris has always performed well at the Styrian circuit, he confirmed that his feeling with the MCL39 had improved:
“I definitely felt more in Austria. Canada is always an outlier, so it’s hard to make judgments there. But I felt like we had unlocked something extra. I don’t think it’s back to the same sensitivity I had last year, but it’s better.”
Future Outlook for the McLaren Duo
Lando Norris followed up his Austrian win with a historic home victory at Silverstone, claiming his first ever British Grand Prix win. Although Oscar Piastri narrowly beat him in qualifying by just 0.015 seconds, Norris was hampered by traffic — particularly behind Max Verstappen — during the first half of a rain-affected race. Despite this, the British driver showed stronger pace than his teammate in the latter stages and took advantage of a time penalty given to Piastri.
Still, Norris remains cautious about overstating the effect of the suspension update:
“I think people are talking too much about it. Maybe it helps me — perhaps by a few hundredths or thousandths of a second — but it’s impossible to quantify. […] I’d rather credit the results to the hard work we’ve done off the track as a team. I think that matters more than a few changes to the suspension. Maybe one day I’ll do a proper back-to-back test and see if I can feel a difference.”
Ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend, Oscar Piastri reiterated his decision not to test the new suspension, choosing instead to stick with a consistent baseline and focus on car setup:
“For me, it’s not an upgrade — it’s just something different. It might improve some things, but it could worsen others. If it were all benefits, I’d be using it without question, but I’ve never struggled with that kind of feedback.”
However, after the race, Andrea Stella indicated that the team may consider aligning the setups of both drivers, partly for spare parts logistics:
“We’re discussing whether some of the solutions adopted by Lando might be worth exploring for Oscar in the future.”
Whether Piastri will benefit from these updates remains to be seen, but it is clear that this suspension tweak is just one variable — a minor but potentially significant technical factor in what is shaping up to be a gripping World Championship battle. Ultimately, the duel between Norris and Piastri will be determined not only by engineering updates but also by mental fortitude, consistency, and racecraft.
Leave a Reply